1-2-3 Go Garden!: August 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

First and Last

So I went about my garden taking note of all the "last" daylilies -- plants whose blooms are all but spent for the season -- and I was amazed to discover a first bloom among them. I think this is the final one in my collection, Royal Palace Prince.

Royal Palace Prince

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

I checked, and although it has bloomed as early as July 29 in earlier, drier years, last year (also wet) it bloomed on August 14, too. (A remarkably consistent plant!) Now, here are some daylilies that are just finishing up their season today.

Ice Carnival

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Lucky Catch

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Persian Ruby

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Darkside

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Africa

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Druid's Chant

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Royal Mountie

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Daveo Holman

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David Kirchoff

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

And, since we're awfully close to Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, I'll include a few photos of things other than daylily blooms.

Japanese Anemone

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Unknown Hosta

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Miniature Hosta 'Stiletto'

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Black-Eyed Susan

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

...
Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Monday, August 10, 2009

A Puzzle: The Daylily Mosaic

Every year I post a mosaic of daylily photos. Usually I just do a 4 by 4 square, but this year I have created the maximum size available, a 6 by 6 square.

Believe me it takes a long time and a lot of fiddling to create one of these things. I thought I was soooo careful, but it looks like I still didn't get quite the "unique" effect I was going for (as in all photos unique, and all daylilies unique).

Well then, let this post stand as a puzzle.

EASY QUESTION: Can you find the photo that appears twice?

HARDER QUESTION: Can you find the daylily that appears twice, though in different views?
...
Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

My Newest Seedling

My newest seedling bloomed today for the very first time ever.

I played bumblebee with my daylilies in 2006 and 2007, collected seeds and planted them. And neglected them. (But not entirely.) Some grew anyway.

I call them the strong ones.

First there was Offspring that bloomed in a forgotten corner of the garden in 2008.

My First Seedling

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Then there was another one, early on this year.

My Second Seedling

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Now, the best one of all.

My Newest Seedling

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

It has the coloring of Moonlit Masquerade (or possibly Snowy Eyes) with a size and shape reminiscent of El Desperado. I did not keep track of parentage with my seedling experiments. I prefer surprises. Especially nice surprises. Aha! That will be my name for it: Nice Surprise.

Possible Parentage

For comparison, here is a look at other daylilies in my garden that might have contributed parentage.

Moonlit Masquerade

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Snowy Eyes

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

El Desperado

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

...
Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Robins

We've had some young robins (or maybe it's the same one?) hanging around the house and garden for the past couple of days. Thought you might like to see some photos.

Young Robin on the Birdbath

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Robins Resting Near Buddha

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

And this one spent some time on our porch railing.

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

A lot of time.

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved
...
Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Three Tuesdays on Monday

The title refers to the last photo in the post.

New Blooms

Three new first blooms in the past two days (four, if you count the disappointing 'Africa'), but that might be it now for the year.

So, for first blooms we had 'Snowy Eyes' and 'David Kirchoff' on Sunday, and 'Franz Hals' today.

Snowy Eyes

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

David Kirchoff

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Franz Hals

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Not sure whether to count 'Africa', which, much like 'Root Beer' had a disappointing showing this year. (And by the way 'Smith Brothers', my other rare dark daylily, did not bloom at all this year.)

Africa

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Yes, it's a beautiful dark daylily, but that is a six-inch scape and even in the blazing noonday sun, the flower did not open. So yes, for a daylily newly planted last year, it's a disappointment.

Moving on now, my echinacea and many varieties of hosta are blooming happily.

Echinacea and Hosta

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Hello Good-bye

It's time to say good-bye to the splendid daylily 'Raspberry Swirl', whose final flower I commemorated on film (er, CCD).

The Last 'Raspberry Swirl'

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Oh, and say hello to Ivory Edges, which finally produced a flower worth photographing. Its first bloom was certainly nothing special.

Ivory Edges (Finally, A Good One)

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Three-for-One Tuesday

And here is that really striking photo I wanted to show, of three blooms on Tuesday. I like how the sunlight as it hits the fence in the background looks like a halo around the bud off to the left.

Three 'Tuesday' Blooms

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Hurry Up and Wait

Well, the "new" blooms are sort of slowing down now, since we are getting into the late part of the daylily season. But I have a few from the last couple of days I can show you.

On July 29, there was Grand Masterpiece and Trahlyta. I only had time to rush around the garden with my iPhone to try and get some photos, since I was very busy that day.

Grand Masterpiece

'Grand Masterpiece' First Bloom 29/07/09

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Also, on July 29 it rained most of the day, and that's not great for a lot of the more tender daylilies. However, the rain does bring out the dark colouring in purple daylilies, so Darkside looked great.

Another 'Darkside'

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

July 30 was great weather, sunny and bright, a gorgeous day for a beautiful first bloom from Catherine Woodbury. I was able to get out with my camera and capture some better photos.

Catherine Woodbury

'Catherine Woodbury' First Bloom 30/07/09

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

Of course "better" is a relative term. Then not far away I found that Black-Eyed Susan had bloomed with two polytepalous flowers, so I recorded that.

Two Polytepalous 'Black-Eyed Susan'

Philosophical Karen © all rights reserved

And finally, purple coneflower (Echinacea) is just coming into its glory. Here is a very, very tall one. I'm pretty sure it's 'Magnus' (which would make sense).

Echinacea 'Magnus'